Regal Glory wins Matriarch Stakes on Del Mar’s closing day

Fourth up the backside in the eight-horse field, Regal Glory, the 3-5 favorite, uncorked a powerful closing kick in the stretch to win the $400,000 Grade I Matriarch Stakes

Regal Glory, a brilliant 6-year-old Animal Kingdom mare from the Chad Brown stable, showed a flair for the dramatic Sunday as Del Mar closed up shop on its Bing Crosby fall meet.

Fourth up the backside in the eight-horse field, Regal Glory, the 3-5 favorite, uncorked a powerful closing kick in the stretch to win the $400,000 Grade I Matriarch Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths under Flavien Prat, who won six races Sunday to come from behind and defeat Juan Hernandez for the riding title, 24-20.

It was Regal Glory’s second consecutive victory in the Matriarch and Brown’s fifth overall. Final time for the 1 mile on the turf was 1:33.60 — second fastest clocking since the race was moved to Del Mar nine years ago.

The Philip D’Amato-trained Hamwood Flier, the 3-1 second choice ridden by Mike Smith, opened an eight-length leaded up the backstretch through splits of 23.58, 46.12 and 1:09.81 before fading to fourth in the race for fillies and mares.

England’s Rose, a 17-1 longshot, finished second, a nose in front of 13-1 outsider Pizza Bianca.

“I had great respect for Mike’s (filly), but there was nothing I could do about it then,” Prat said. “My mare had to run her race. Once she got going I knew we were going to be all right. Then she did and we were all right.”

For Regal Glory, it was the final race of a 23-race career that saw her win 13 times for $2,619,134 in earnings. She won last year’s Matriarch by 2 1/4 lengths with Jose Ortiz in the saddle.

“She broke a little slow and (Prat) tried to relax her on the backside, but I don’t worry about it,” said Brown assistant Jose Hernandez. “Those kind of fillies just kick off and it was amazing. We’re going to miss her. We’ve had a lot of nice moments, a lot of nice races.”

For Prat, it’s the 30-year-old Frenchman’s second Del Mar fall meet riding title and sixth overall. He won with 36% of his 86 mounts this fall and it was his second six-win day in Southern California. Prat won six races at Santa Anita on May 18, 2020.

Cecil B. DeMille Stakes

The speedy Speed Boat Beach, ridden by Prat, scored a half-length victory in the $100,000 turf race for 2-year-olds, running the 1 mile on the grass in 1:35.38 as the 8-5 favorite.

Trained by Bob Baffert, the winner tracked pacesetter Game Time from second much of the way until taking the lead at the top of the stretch and earning his third victory in four starts. The Bayern colt had finished ninth, beaten 10 1/2 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in his previous start at Keeneland on Nov. 4.

“I liked the way he relaxed and yet he has the speed,” Baffert said. “For a horse that can go from a five and a half track record and then win going a mile on the turf, that’s a pretty good race horse and he’s going to get better with age. We’ll just pick our spots with him. Just have fun with him.”